The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth in the past several decades. Technological advances in semiconductor materials and design have produced increasingly smaller and more complex circuits. These material and design advances have been made possible as the technologies related to processing and manufacturing have also undergone technical advances. As a size of the smallest component has decreased, numerous challenges have risen. For example, the need to perform higher resolution lithography processes grows.
Photolithography processes utilize a mask (also referred to as a photomask or a reticle). A mask contains IC patterns to be printed on a substrate, such as a wafer. Any dust or contaminant particles attached to the surfaces of a mask may result in artifacts on the printed IC patterns. As IC features continue to shrink and the corresponding mask features become smaller, cleanliness in handling a mask during semiconductor manufacturing processes becomes more and more important.